Parents Respond to Refusing Vaccinations

In light of our discussion last week on vaccine safety, you might find these responses from parents on MSNBC: interesting. I will post a few so you can get the idea. It is amazing to hear so many reasons why parents decide to do one thing or another. There is a good reason why you never hear parenting is easy!

"As a mother of an autistic child, I've certainly had my concerns about inoculations," writes Evelyn Gonzalez, who's from Boston. "However, I'm even more concerned about parents sending children to public places and schools knowing how easily disease is spread, when they haven't been given their vaccines."

"I did not chose to vaccinate my children. They are grown and have had very little illness their entire lives. I feel this is due to their not receiving injections of chemicals into their bodies. The few times they were sick we used natural remedies with excellent results.I reached the decision not to vaccinate through careful research. I am very happy I did this."
— Dolores Lewis, Scottsdale, Ariz.

"I chose not to vaccinate my children after one child developed a severe reaction to the vaccination. Also, I believe we are inviting a destruction to our immune system by disallowing it to fight the natural childhood diseases that come along."
— Mark, Humansville, Mo.

"I am a mother of 4 children ages 11, 7 and 5 year old twins. My 7 year old was a normally developing child who talked and interacted with other children. However, after receiving his 15 month vaccinations he stopped talking and became very withdrawn. That was 6 years ago and he has yet to regain his speech although we have spent thousands of dollars on speech, occupational, and ABA therapy. I have chosen not to complete the vaccinations for my twins because I don't want to risk having to go through what I have been through with my son all over again. Many of us who choose not to vaccinate are not totally opposed to vaccinations and the benefits they can provide, but rather we are just asking for a safer vaccination schedule and safer vaccines. I hope that one day it will be possible to protect our children from disease without the fear of a life long disability like Autism. I choose not to vaccinate my twins because if they got chicken pox, measles, or even pertussis it would not be nearly as devastating as Autism has been for our son or our family."
— Lori Elliott, Amboy, Ind.

"I am a pediatrician and vaccinated my daughter at the earliest permissible moment. If there were verifiable more serious side effects I would never have taken a chance on my precious angel. Unfortunately bad things happen. Children develop autism, seizures, retardation and even cancer. These occur with and without vaccination at a predictable rate. There is ZERO verifiable scientific data linking vaccines and more serious permanent side effects. Parents naturally want answers when their own child is afflicted in any way,and since vaccines are given mostly to children they are blamed irrationally. Avoiding vaccines for nonsensical, conspiracy theorist reasons are putting all children at unnecessary risk and lead to VERIFIABLE life-threatening illnesses."
— Glen Ogden, M.D., Dallas

"I'm the mother of six children ranging in age from 32 years to 16 years of age. Parenting is a hard job for many reasons, but mostly because every decision that we make for them will impact their lives some how.Everyone of my children (4 boys and & 2 girls) have received all the required vaccinations and those that are recommended for college students.Protecting my children is very important to me and I feel that this is one way to keep them safe from the fate of so many children in the years before immunizations were developed. Just like any part of parenting you have to weigh the good against the bad. Do I let them get a drivers licence? Should they go out after the prom? What college is best? Every day is a decision with an impact to it so when ever you make a decision to keep your children healthy , it's a good day."
— Joanne Anderson, Honesdale, Pa.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Green our Vaccines March

Jenny McCarthy and her boyfriend, Jim Carrey, marched on Washington this week sporting "green our vaccines" t-shirts. As many of you know, Jenny has a son with autism. She believes childhood immunizations played a role in his symptoms. She wants the government to change the vaccine schedule for kids. She says there are too many vaccines given to children at too young of an age. There are strong feelings on both sides of this issue.

I was sent an email stating there was a similar march in Springfield, Illinois at the same time.

Here's the ABC News Coverage of the event:

The actors have joined with other national autism advocacy groups to press for the elimination of toxins from children's vaccines and to change children's vaccination schedules.

The Institute of Medicine concluded that 19 major studies, tracking thousands of kids, all show no link between vaccines and autism. Still, thimerosal was removed from essentially all childhood vaccines in 2001 in response to autism fears. But autism rates have continued to rise, leaving many experts to consider the case against thimerosal settled.


Nearly one in every 150 children in the United States has autism, according to the organization Talk About Curing Autism, one of the march's sponsors.

McCarthy's 6-year-old son, Evan, has autism, and the actress has become a vocal advocate for more autism-related research. McCarthy's best-selling book, "Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism," chronicles her efforts to help her son overcome his symptoms through a special diet, medication and daily therapy.

Many doctors worry that linking autism to vaccines could deter parents from vaccinating their children, leading to an outbreak of childhood diseases like measles, mumps and rubella, which have been virtually delimited thanks to childhood immunization but are now threatening again.


The CDC is bracing for the worst measles outbreak since 2001, with nine states already reporting cases this year. In 2006, more than 6,500 Americans were sickened by mumps, the worst outbreak in 20 years.

McCarthy and Carrey said that while they do support immunization, they and their allies believe children receive "too many vaccines, too soon, many of which are toxic."

This march brought up a question I am often asked. What do Jenny and others mean when they say a safer vaccine schedule? I am hesitant to post the recommendations because I know it would cause a big fuss from doctors who believe there is no link between childhood immunizations and autism. All the major health organizations have stated that as a fact. Still, people who read this blog want to know what an altered immunization schedule looks like. Let me know your thoughts on whether or not I should post something!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen